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General discussion

DONT BUY FROM MONSTER STORES

Sep 2, 2005 7:03AM PDT

When I started building my home theater system I shopped at FRYS, CIRCUT CITY etc. and what a nitemare salespeople new nothing, I bought gear that was not compatable problems, problems. Then I went to a high end retailer SAN JOSE electronice , They spent a lot of time with me and gave me a system thats awsome and for the same price as the monster stores. Also I had a problem with the nasty picture from my d.v.d. player, So the salesman came to my house with a DENON 2900 and a gifin d.v.i switcher, hooked it up and BAM beautiful picture I wrote him out a check, now That is customer service, I think you folks make a mistake when you buy from monster stores especially cosco good luck to you all stewart norrie

Discussion is locked

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Big box stores VS high end retail or custom
Sep 3, 2005 1:49PM PDT

Smart people go to the big box stores only when they already know what they want. People looking for a good system have to ask themselves, what good could I possibly be getting from a dvd player that retails for 89.00, heck the box and packaging is probably worth 7.00, the store is making money, a distributer somewhere is making money, the item had to be shipped from over seas, and some manufacture somewhere is making money, how much could it have cost to produce? It's disposable I guess. But thats where the Big box stores do well, lower priced equipment, sales staff that don't really have to know too much,(that would take up too much time) and the hope that most people coming in already have a pretty good idea of what they want.
I am glad your experience at a high end retailler turned out well, most people that have gone that route would share your sentiments, (the Gefen piece is nice I use them too when needed).
Building a home theatre system is not like buying paper towels, if you are going to worry about saving 50.00, then the HTIB (home theatre in a box) and doing it yourself is possibly the way to go. This isn't supposed to be something you buy every couple of years, a good system should last a long time, and be designed to allow for possible new technologies, thats why a good custom integration firm or higher end retail is the better bet. It will cost you a litle more, but in the end you will get service, experience and a good reliable system that should perform to your expectations.

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HAYU MR. PRO
Sep 5, 2005 5:56AM PDT

This is stewart calling, thank you for your postAnyway this San Jose Sony store I was talking about does mostly hi-end installations but they do sell affordable hi-def t.vs I bought my Sony KP-65WV600 from them for $2500 and all the moster store wanted $3495and yess CUSTOMER SERVICE, Anyway Iam about to take the plung and buy the Sony VPL-HS51 projector and screen I found one on sale for $2895 I plan to run my v.c.r, lazer disk player and standerd cable to a regular anolog 27" t.v. behind the roll up screen then run my DENON d.v.d. player and DISH 811 hi-def satellite to the projector This way I only have to run power and a d.v.i. cable to the projector I have a gifin d.v.i. switcher to switch d.v.d. and satellite Also I use optical auduo output from my sat. box and d.v.d player I have a pioneer 6.1 receiver with Klipsh 5.5 main Klipsh acadmy center Atlantic techonology sounounds and Cerwin Vaga in rear with a INFINITY 15" 500 watt sub HOW DOES THIS SOUN ANY IDEAS? cadillacstew@aol;.com

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DONT BUY FROM MONSTER STORES
Sep 4, 2005 10:25AM PDT

This has been talked about in the fourms.
Finding a salesman that know his stuff is a hard thing to do. Now if you live in Charlot NC you can go the Sears TV Guy, But he does seem to be the excption. Too bad!!!
But that is one of the reasons that the c-net fourms are here,,, to help you out. John

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most big box stores suck...
Sep 6, 2005 2:40AM PDT

but as a salesman for 6 years at Rex TV (270 stores last time I checked) I also found the custom store down the road knew less than I did in many cases.
Yeah, I'm an enthusiast so I take the time to learn as opposed to a lot of salespeople out there ! Still, I got really frustrated with the people who came in to my store for weeks and even months to pick my brain, benefit from my knowledge and experience, AND THEN come into my store later on to ask for help in setting up the system they got from someone else. It was a big deal for me for two reasons... first, I worked straight commission... second, I felt used. especially since most of these people bought the stuff from the store down the road so they could tell their friends that they shopped there. The same store that wasn't open at 8:00 p.m. to take their calls... but I was. The moral of the story ? Doesn't matter where you buy... the person who sells it to you is what matters. Something people used to know but seem to have forgotten in this day of bargain bin best buys and warehouse stores.

BTW... I still do custom installation on the side when I have time and don't think the people are trouble... "trouble" ? Yeah... the folk who want a ferrari system for kia prices and complain about all the other installers who screwed them. Some people will never be happy and you get tired of phone calls at 10:00 p.m. from people who refuse to learn how to switch a source input on their remote.

Sorry. Too much coffee.

grim

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can't change the system :\
Oct 1, 2005 5:50PM PDT

you also have to keep in mind that in order for monster chains like best buy and circuit city to train people, they literally have to send them out to classes where they learn all that stuff. 800+ best buy stores, will cost quite a bit of money to send a bunch of new employees to ''training camp''..especially when most of those will quit within a year and half of them are minors and still have high school. its an unfortunate hole that they dug themselves into.

magnolia best buys are actually sending out whole departments to trainings now for a whole week to help with the higher end product training.

adding to the fact that a lot of people base their income on the amount of stuff they sell at the commisioned stores..which means if you dont know your stuff, you wont be able to put food on the table. whereas employees at BB and CC doesnt care as much because they still get paid the same rather they sell or not.

unfortunately, it is what it is.

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can't change the system :\
Oct 3, 2005 1:31AM PDT

This is true!!! Fry's has an in store training program, for each deptarment, so there are 3 training sessions a week for the TV dept. It is the same for all 3 sessions and at different time so all the people will have a chance to go. At Fry's the sales people get a base + commision.
BB has been tring to make thier stores self-service for years. So the quality of the sales force is not important to them.
2 years ago CC fired all of thier top sales people because they were making to much money. I know Fry's hired a lot of them.
The people in Charlote NC can go to the Sears store and buy fron our Sears TV Guy.
I approach ALL salemen this way,, If they wern't working here they would be selling used cars. John